Notes and Views January 2015

[Vince Massimo]

Sightings of Red Admirals carried on through December 2014 and into the New Year, which is not unusual for this species. In fact 2015 is the 7th Year in the last 11 where an adult has been sighted on 1st January (this by William Langdon at Exeter Railway Station). viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8132#p94044

What is more significant is that winter sightings of immature stages are also becoming common. The website of the Sussex BC Branch carried a report from Dave Harris on 7th January of "good numbers of both first instar caterpillars and unhatched eggs" in Newhaven, East Sussex.

An update posted on 23rd January advised that "the last of the Red Admiral eggs laid on 29th November (2014) hatched today (exactly eight weeks as an ova), having endured winds, snow and frost to minus 3.5º last night. The recent gales and cold seems to have done considerable damage to the nettles, however, and it was not possible to find evidence of any earlier hatchings, although hopefully they may be somewhere in the new growth just appearing at the dead stem bases."

(The link to the website is here http://www.sussex-butterflies.org.uk/sightings.html but the reports will slip down the page as the weeks pass).

Vince

[Vince Massimo]

A report of a sighting of a Speckled Wood on 25th December 2014 in Hampshire http://www.havantnature.net/Forms/Dec28%20NN.pdf

This is carried through to the January notes for administrative reasons.

Vince

[Vince Massimo]

A report from Rob Partridge who found a Large White larva in his garden in Mepal, Cambridgeshire on 11th January 2015.
viewtopic.php?t=8132&start=0#p94355

Vince

[Pete Eeles]

Just about everything that Nick Broomer has written on the Wood White, starting here!:

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6065&start=860#p94823

Cheers,

- Pete